The present invention relates to packaging articles, and in particular to packaging consumer products such as food, chemicals, cosmetics, or pharmaceuticals, all of which generally require consumer or user information to be provided, or indeed other information of a purely commercial nature.
More precisely, the invention relates to an envelope for packaging at least one article, the envelope being of the type constituted by a sleeve of heat-shrink plastics material having a main portion suitable for encapsulating at least a portion of the article or a group of articles, said sleeve also having an additional flap overlapping the outside of the sleeve and connected to the main portion of the sleeve via two parallel lines of heat sealing at its lateral ends, said flap having a panel-forming portion which is detachable by being torn off.
An envelope of that type is described in document EP-A-0 670 807 in the name of the Applicant, said envelope having an additional flap defining a panel which can be detached by tearing along two parallel lines extending along generator lines of the sleeve. The additional flap co-operates with the facing face of the main portion of the sleeve to form a pocket for containing instructions constituted by one or more sheets. Under such circumstances, the detachable panel constitutes practically all of the additional flap.
That document shows clearly the state of the art concerning the use of an envelope of heat-shrink plastics material having an additional flap, carrying instructions placed in the pocket which the flap forms together with the sleeve.
Document EP-A-0 775 643 in the name of the Applicant shows a variant of the above envelope having an additional flap in which the panel can be detached by tearing along two parallel lines extending in a circumferential direction of the sleeve, by pulling on an associated end tongue, and by tearing along a line of perforations or the like extending along a generator line of the sleeve. In that case also, the additional flap co-operates with the main portion of the sleeve to define a pocket in which instructions are inserted, with access to the instructions being obtained after the panel has been detached.
Until now, the instructions associated with the envelopes shown in the above-cited documents have needed to be inserted manually while forming the sleeve, prior to the sleeve being placed on the article(s) concerned and prior to the sleeve that has been formed being subjected to heat-shrinking. Such manual insertion requires the presence of a specialized work force that has been trained on site, and that slows down rates of manufacturing throughput and represents a non-negligible fraction in the total cost of making such envelopes.
Another drawback exists if it is desired for the pocket defined by the additional flap and the main portion of the sleeve to contain a flat item of greater thickness, for example an item that is a few millimeters thick. In addition to the difficulties associated with manual insertion, a flat item of considerable thickness for insertion into the pocket leads to significant local deformation of the wall of the main portion of the sleeve, thus disturbing the planeness of the inside face of the sleeve, and consequently possibly interfering with positioning of the sleeve on the article or group of articles concerned.
That is why instructions integrated in heat-shrink envelopes have been restricted to a few sheets only, and why booklets of recipes or books of games or other flat items, for example, have not been inserted in heat-shrink envelopes of the above-specified type having a pocket-forming flap.
An object of the invention is to improve envelopes of the above-specified type, by devising an arrangement which is compatible with flat items being placed automatically in the envelope while it is being made, and while also making it possible to put into place flat items that are of considerable thickness, such as booklets.
In accordance with the invention, this problem is solved by an envelope for packaging at least one article, the envelope being of the type constituted by a sleeve of heat-shrink plastics material having a main portion suitable for encapsulating at least a portion of the article or a group of articles, said sleeve also having an additional flap overlapping the outside of the sleeve and connected to the main portion of the sleeve via two parallel lines of heat sealing at its lateral ends, said flap having a panel-forming portion which is detachable by being torn off, at least one adhesive strip extending along a generator line of the sleeve also being provided on the outside face of the main portion or on the inside face of the additional flap, said strip serving to retain a flat item in the pocket formed by said additional flap, in such a manner that said item is held captive behind the detachable panel and is recoverable once said panel has been detached.
In a first embodiment, the adhesive strip is a separate piece which extends along the full height of the sleeve. This is then entirely compatible with obtaining an envelope by cutting off a segment from a continuous reel presenting the separate adhesive strip in question extending in the length direction of the segment.
In which case, the separate adhesive strip is advantageously adhesive on both faces. Naturally, it is possible to provide a peel-off strip on the separate adhesive strip while it is still on the reel from which the corresponding segment is taken for making the envelope of the invention.
It is also possible to provide for the separate adhesive strip to be a single strip and of a width that is less than the width of the flat item.
In another embodiment, the adhesive strip is not a separate piece but is constituted by at least one line of adhesive deposited on the face concerned. The or each line of adhesive is preferably constituted by a hot-melt adhesive.
The, or at least one of the, adhesive lines may be continuous, extending over the full height of the sleeve, or discontinuous, presenting prepositioned segments, and may have any type of predetermined profile, rectilinear or otherwise.
Below, the term xe2x80x9cadhesive stripxe2x80x9d is used to cover not only a strip constituted by a separate piece, but also one or more lines of adhesive deposited on the face concerned.
Also preferably, the inside wall of the flap adheres to the facing outside wall of the main portion on either side of the flat item by means of the adhesive strip extending along a generator line of the sleeve.
This characteristic is particularly advantageous for use with flat items of considerable thickness, such as booklets, insofar as said item, once the envelope has been configured into the form of a sleeve ready for putting into place, is properly held in a closed space as in a shell, while also achieving minimum deformation of the main wall of the sleeve, thus making it possible to avoid any significant interference with installing the envelope on an article or a group of articles.
Provision can be made for the panel to be detachable by tearing along two parallel lines extending in the same direction as the adhesive strip. In particular, the panel may be detachable along the entire height of the sleeve, possibly with the help of a tear string.
In a variant, provision can be made for the panel to be detachable by tearing along two parallel lines extending in a circumferential direction of the sleeve, by pulling on an associated end tongue, and for it to be tearable along a line of perforations or the like extending in the same direction as the adhesive strip.
The flat item concerned may be essentially rigid, or it may present a degree of flexibility in a circumferential direction of the sleeve. As a particular example, the flat item may be constituted by a booklet or the like suitable for presenting recipes or games.